“And what are you doing here Bateman? Isn’t this a little off your usual track”
“Now, now Silver, I could say the same about you,” he winked at Elizabeth to neutralise some of the menace. “Would you both care for a drink?”
Avery had taken breath to decline when Elizabeth accepted, a mischievous smirk on her lips. She returned to the window seat which had been cleared of plates and waited.
“
It looks for all the world like you are following a scent Silver,” Bateman growled.
“
And you Bateman? What brings you this far from town?”
“
What will it be gentlemen?” A barman had appeared in place of the timid barmaid and he smiled amiably at the two young men. He hoped they would stay and boost his takings. Glancing across at the well-dressed Elizabeth, it had not gone unnoticed that the trio clearly had some money to spare.
“T
hree of your finest ales if you please. And one for yourself my good man!” Bateman stated cheerily. Avery sighed and eyed him warily.
~o~
It was a few hours later when Elizabeth and Avery re-traced their steps over the downs and found the hollow in which Avery had hidden his dress. The walk had been tiring and, after a few drinks and the heat of the afternoon, they had felt drained and had fallen into a sullen silence. Avery had broken up the party with Bateman by taking his leave and indicating discretely that he would not, could not wait for Elizabeth. Knowing she would not be able to find her own way home she was able to excuse herself at the same time.
“
Avery, will you walk with me until I am collected?”
Bateman’s look had been thunderous and he had clamped his jaw shut on some impolite exclamation. Taking their leave, they had been careful to ensure that he had not followed them as they slipped out of town via the main road and away across the common lands. The last they had seen of him was as he raised his hat to Elizabeth with a small bow and a smile and then, standing up, he had nodded to Avery with narrowed eyes. As he watched the retreating form of Elizabeth crossing the road, the glint of the high sun had caught his eye and Avery was reminded of the wolf in Grimm’s fairy stories.
Now, as Avery hid from view to redress himself, he thought of how that expression would morph into something far more sinister if he were to follow them to Georgina’s. He shivered in the cooling shade of the oak as he shrugged on the dress over his bare arms.
By the time Avery, Kate and Elizabeth were within sight of home, the last light of July was fading from the sky and they were met by an anxious party from the house. The faces of Cribbs, Helen and Peter, a sullen boy from the stable, were unmistakably peeved at having found the three of them so soon and come to no harm. Peter had half been hoping all three of them had fallen in the river and been washed away to sea. The quiet suburbs were devoid of any such headlines and, though miserable and wet looking, Avery and Elizabeth were very much alive and well. As such, all three of the search party looked as though they had found a penny but lost a pound.
“
Thank heavens,” exclaimed Helen dryly. “The mistress has been alive with worry for you all.” She fussed directly to Elizabeth who stalked past her and off towards the house. Cribbs went scurrying after her and the stable boy, throwing up his hands, shook his hand and padded back behind the house. The older maid raised an eyebrow to Kate and Avery, who between them were carrying the load of equipment and bags. She went to Avery’s aid, casting Kate a frown.
“It’s alright. I’ve got a good hold. I think Kate needs a hand.”
“I can manage,” Kate snapped and Helen shot her a look.
“
Well. If you can both ‘
manage
’, I will see you back at the house shortly. You have both missed dinner. If cook can ‘
manage’
, I will see that something be left out for you.” With that she rounded on her heels and strode back to the house.
As soon as the gathering dusk took her from view, Avery dropped his bag and turned to Kate.
“Kate! We need to get back to London.”
The urgency of his tone was all too evident and Kate still looked cross with having been left all day on a damp river bank to swelter, painting two lots of the same scene. She seemed to have been doing a good job in the first few hours but then her inexperienced enthusiasm had altered the paintings beyond recognition. By the time Avery and Elizabeth had shown up they were little more than a child’s daubing. The paper, thin beneath her brushstrokes, had begun to wear and Elizabeth had mocked her ruthlessly. Avery too had smiled and, in her anger, Kate had finished packing the bags rather carelessly. As she had pulled the easel shut, the paintings slipped from their stand and fell to the mud of the river bank.
“
Ha! In one fell swoop you may have managed to improve them tenfold!” Elizabeth had crowed.
Avery had shot Elizabeth a scowl as he had rushed to help Kate try to rescue them from the waters edge.
“What? Can it be helped that she is as clumsy as she is useless at landscapes?”
As Elizabeth spoke, one of the watercolours slipped further down the bank and Avery had to step into the shallows to retrieve it. It was a step too far and his footing, inside the unsuitable dainty boots beneath his skirt, slipped on the riverbed and Avery had half sat in the water. It was too much for Elizabeth and she roared with laughter. Kate and Avery’s moods had darkened.
“
Well, at least we don’t have to show Aunt Georgina one of those awful pictures. We can say the remaining one is your effort and the wet and spoiled one could pass as my own which got ruined. It makes it far more believable. Don’t you think?”
She had not waited for a response but had strolled off leaving Avery and Kate to finish packing the supplies and hurry after her. No-one had said more than a few words to one another all the way back to Juniper Hall. Avery had been deep in thought. Running into Giles Bateman had unnerved him and now he offloaded his thoughts to Kate.
“We must think of a plan and we must think of one soon. There is a chance we will be discovered,” he continued.
In the fading warmth of the day, Avery’s face was pale and he pulled on his lip nervously.
Kate did not seem to be roused into any kind of panic, her voice totally steady.
“Who did you see in town?”
her voice was calm.
“Bateman,” h
e said simply though he knew the name would mean nothing to her. There followed a silence which he could not resist filling. He trusted Kate and he was now in a position where he needed to share his worries. “He’s a friend of mine. Someone I know from town. We go out together, a group of us.”
He looked at Kate to discern her reaction but her face was full in shadow. He glanced towards the house where windows were blazing into life as rooms were lit for the evening.
“So this Bateman, he’s a friend?”
“We go out drinking and dancing and making entertainment. It’s how I met Elizabeth. Bateman had his eye on her and I think I may have overstepped the mark and now he is here. He has followed her here and now he knows I am here and...Oh God Kate, do you think he knows? What if he knows?”
“Calm down Avery!” she railed, moving into the light. Her eyes, first on his and then behind him towards the house, narrowed as she considered their dilemma.
“You don’t understand Kate. If he knows she is staying with her aunt, he could turn up at any opportunity. He will only have to make some enquiries as to her whereabouts and he could be here at any time.”
“Miss Greenwood is here in disgrace is she not?”
Avery nodded.
“And why is she in disgrace? Cribbs mentioned something about her mistress sneaking out and being brought home by a man in the small hours. Would that be you or Bateman? Or could it be that Miss Greenwood is to be found by any number of young men out of an evening?” she added waspishly. The comment went unnoticed by Avery and she waited whilst her words sank in.
“It must have been Giles. That night after we met. It was late when she left.”
“Giles?” Kate asked.
“Bateman.”
“And if it was Bateman who was caught bringing her back late,” she continued.
“Then he will be persona non grata!” Avery finished.
“So we should stay. If you stay here at the house, he can’t discover you?”
He was about to add something else when a voice called to them. It was Georgina. She was closer than they had realised and the sound of her voice made both of them jump.
“There you are.” Her tone expressed irritation and she flashed a scowling smile in the fading light across Avery and Kate in turn. ‘Both of you.’
Avery’s skin crawled as he wondered how much she had heard. He recalled glancing at the house a few moments before and the route had looked clear. How had she managed to creep up upon them so suddenly and so soundlessly. A heavy set woman, she could hardly have kept from making a noise across the gravel path at least.
“
I can’t imagine what you can both be thinking of to remain outside a moment longer. Elizabeth has informed me of your accident by the river. I expect you wish to have a bath and get changed?”
She stepped aside and indicated for Avery to precede her back to the house. Avery bent to collect the equipment, which he had dropped to talk to Kate. Georgina snapped at him. “Leave that. She said she could manage. If she needs help, I will send Cribbs back down.”
Avery ignored Georgina and scooped up his bags and indicated to Kate for her to follow him. Seeing the steely glare with which the old woman fixed them both with Kate didn’t hesitate.
~o~
The following day was just as searing and, along with dry heat, the air was oppressive with tension. Elizabeth had acted quickly to return to her aunt’s good books and had taken great delight in elaborating over the details of their ‘
day out’
. Georgina’s ill humour had been dismantled entirely when Elizabeth had produced Kate’s ‘effort’, attributed entirely to Avery. After the laughter had died down and Georgina’s face had returned to its usual dour expression, she lauded.
“There is no doubt in my mind, Miss Silver, that your father has dealt you a great handicap in neglecting your education. There is certainly nothing in your artistic palette that warrants pursuing.” She almost looked sympathetically upon Avery, as if such a creature should deserve pity rather than piety. She considered Avery, sat sullenly before her, and saw for a moment the child that had lost its mother. Avery glanced up and glared. He reached behind his head and stroked his neck. With that simple gesture, Georgina almost put her finger on what made her uneasy around Avery. He had a masculine presence and it unnerved her. The sympathy had been a brief interruption in her austere façade and instead a grim flash of malice flickered across her narrowed eyes. “I still hold firm that your talents must lie somewhere Miss Silver. Perhaps a spell indoors working on a frame or two?”
Avery’s face fell hard and the old woman was well satisfied that this new chore would diminish some of the spirit which she was beginning to see, and disapprove of.
“You do know how to embroider?” she added incredulously.
After Avery had been set to the task of working on some childish sampler, Georgina grew bored of watching and retreated to her study where a cooling breeze swiftly lulled her to sleep. The opportunity to throw the task aside was taken up and Elizabeth scorned from the corner in which she had been observing his efforts.
“Come now Avery, how do you imagine you will ever be married if you cannot offer your husband any of these ‘
charming’
skills?”
“How on earth do you think any of ‘
this’
, would impress a man?
”
he lifted the sampler and indicated to the watercolours around him which Georgina had shown him to inspire. “All of it. What does a man want with it? What is it for?” He grinned at the absurdity of it and began to undo the stitches he had so carelessly been working on for the last hour. Elizabeth laughed out loud.
“And so what do you imagine a man would want from a lady if not her needlework?”
She picked up a ball of thread and cupped it in her hands.
‘If you were in want of man, what do you think you would wish for?” she asked.
Avery’s face twitched as he considered the comment. He knew that he would never be in want of a man. It was as inconceivable as a hen falling in love with a fox. Without warning, he imagined himself like Connie, on his hands and knees, being forcibly rocked by a man thrusting at him and he felt violated by the thought but smiled despite himself. He felt sure that Connie had no great talent for turning a pious scene to a sampler or committing a still life to canvas but he knew that she was far more in demand than many women he had impressed upon. He ignored her question and answered his own.
“Any man in want of a wife would surely know that such facile tasks must surely dull the mind. I am sure such women are in high demand for exactly that reason.”
Elizabeth sported a wide smile as she welcomed the return of some of Avery’s former wit.
“However,” he added quickly, interrupting a ready retort. “any man in want of a woman would do well to remember that ladies who make such light work of such fiddly tasks would surely be deft in other areas.”
Elizabeth watched Avery with rising interest as she took in his awkward form. Stood behind the armchair, the odd skirt which he was wearing was disguised and he only looked slightly incongruous in his laced blouse. His hair had worked loose from a shabbily tied ponytail and he looked slightly wild and out of place. He seemed too big for the room.
As she watched him, she became aware of a familiar feeling and she closed her eyes until she could feel his hand upon her thighs that day in Hyde Park. She took a breath before she spoke again.
“What makes you think that any woman would wish to be wanted in any way but as a wife?”
He smiled at her with a curious sidelong look.
“There are many ways to be hungry Elizabeth but sating one’s appetite is not always enough to staunch the craving.”
Avery made to step out from behind the armchair but the sudden glimpse of his skirt broke the fragile illusion which Elizabeth had been sheltering within.